


monsters in human skin

by yoonjar



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Violence, Relationship Study, based on choreography by ten x winwin, dance as an expression of love, discussing sakuatsu's power balance, sakuatsu dancer au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26324674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoonjar/pseuds/yoonjar
Summary: Skin is exchanged for skill and they become monsters without bodies.Dance, the music urges,dance.So they do.dancing: a study in creation.
Relationships: Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Comments: 13
Kudos: 61





	monsters in human skin

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is very heavily inspired by this dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ovHSQwp1n0 so i highly recommend watching it before and/or after reading to have the ~full experience~ (i imagined atsumu as the guy in white and sakusa as the one in black). i also listened to lovely by billie eilish and khalid on repeat while writing this so the tones are really similar (as well as the content) so you could try listening to that too!! i wrote this in one sitting after stumbling upon rie's tweet about the aforementioned youtube video, which, paired with meg's sakuatsu!dancers obsession, birthed this fic. 
> 
> this is really just my take on the sakuatsu dynamic, compressed into a singular dance routine with wayyyy too many exaggerated metaphors. it might've been largely self-indulgent, but i do hope you enjoy reading it!

The music starts. One beat. Two beats. Then, Sakusa touches.

His fingertips ghost over Atsumu’s; a feather light sensation. They are raking their unflinching gaze down each other’s body, baring their skin as sacrifices for the music. _Take this and don’t take the rest of me_. Skin that marks blue and purple, skin that charts galaxies, skin that disappears. _Take this and leave my soul_. Skin is exchanged for skill and they become monsters without bodies. _Dance_ , the music urges, _dance_. 

So they do.

They are looking at each other again. Atsumu’s eyes are molten fire and they say _I will win_. So he drags their hands down, and rips them apart as if it scalded him.

(Fingerprints are not meant to match. Fingerprints are not meant to slot perfectly against each other and whisper _home_.)

They are monsters, after all. Testing their immortality, Atsumu reaches for Sakusa’s neck.

_Break_ , he whispers. 

It doesn’t.

Because Sakusa is there too, fingers around Atsumu’s throat. _I dare you_ , his gaze speaks for itself. Anger bubbles in his lungs and he feels heat low in his chest, _Sakusa has to stop reading him_. Stop knowing him. Stop understanding him. Go away, go away, _go away_.

He gives a vicious push and folds into himself. 

As if Sakusa would let him retreat so easily.

_Give me more_ , he seems to be saying, limbs reaching out to grab Atsumu’s hand. His body bends low, back arching, and Atsumu momentarily wonders if it hurts to be so flexible; how many more inches are needed to break him. 

So he decides to find out. He digs his fingernails into the tender skin between Sakusa’s shoulders and neck, and _yanks_. Up and down, up and down, going higher each time, forcing the muscles in his back to flex backwards and contort in an effort to not completely shatter under Atsumu’s ministrations. He is rough and brutal. But Sakusa is a monster, and his body is just a cage, so to break it only frees him. He almost wishes for Atsumu to break him. _Set me free_.

He rises to his full height, unbearable lightness in the balls of his feet, and reaches for Atsumu. Claws at him. _An inch higher and my back would have snapped_ , he wants to growl low in his ear. _Why didn’t you go an inch higher?_

He grabs his arm and twirls and twists it. Revenge is in the way he makes Atsumu’s joints crack in time to the beat of the music. 

Revenge is in the way Sakusa sinks his teeth into his shoulder and bites _hard_. His skin is so soft around his mouth, he feels almost sorry. _Almost_.

Atsumu kicks him away. A furious clash of limbs then, nothing. Atsumu basks in the moment of silence, in the space that separates them, in the much-needed breath that finally reaches his lungs.

He inhales deep, swallowing the music in the air and dissolving it into his veins. _He_ is the music now, movements singing louder than the old rusted speaker in the corner of the room.

Atsumu lifts an arm experimentally and Sakusa jerks forward, as if tethered to an invisible thread. _He is the music now_ , and Sakusa will dance to his rhythm. 

He thrusts his arms into the air, the movement choking Sakusa as phantom limbs tug him into flight. They pull and push at him, shattering then piecing him back together again. Sakusa is reborn and remade and he lives four lifetimes in one breath. That is what dancing with Atsumu does to you.

As Sakusa spins, vision dizzying as he’s pushed to the edge of sanity, he finds that he doesn’t really _mind_. Not if it’s Atsumu. The other man was not more powerful than him. He was not stronger than him. They were both monsters and could rip each other apart. 

_Wasn’t that part of the fun?_ Then, with a wicked whisper of a smile, Sakusa tugs free of the puppet strings. (Atsumu was never in control of Sakusa. The thought made him grin darkly, teeth chewing on a laugh he’d never let out.) 

And yet. And _yet_. He knew how much Atsumu idealized his concept of power and victory. He knew how the monster prowling underneath his skin had gaps in its armour where the past snagged and caught at it. So maybe it was out of sympathy, or maybe his duty as a partner, or maybe it didn’t matter the reason at all, because Sakusa sunk his knees to the ground and bowed his head anyway. Power doesn’t always come from the one you’re bowing too. (Sakusa could always get up if he wanted to.)

Then the song explodes.

It is a burst of movement as Sakusa kicks off from the ground the same time Atsumu leaps into the air, and they are both suspended in flight when the song reaches its climax. 

They move fluidly, limbs molding and remolding to follow the shape of the music. They are perfectly in sync; never touching, but never needing to. It is fitting, somehow, that in the height of the song, they dance individually. After all, two monsters in the same cage would kill the world, then each other. 

But there was something in the negative space. How there used to be Sakusa’s overwhelming presence, then nothing. Complete absence. Another person leaving Atsumu again. Leaving, again. Atsumu is drowning in the lack of sensation, clawing at the air as he gasps for oxygen. 

The music slows. Time stops. Sakusa is behind Atsumu. 

_Calm down, idiot._ The ghost of his touch brushes Atsumu’s cheeks; a soft, tentative stroke against his cheekbones. In the push and pull of it all, this is equilibrium. 

“ _Welcome home._ ” The music sings.

And for the first time, silence.

(The silence is louder than the song.)

The song has ended and Atsumu’s face is buried in the crook of Sakusa’s neck, his name on his lips and his fingers in his hair. 

“Omi-kun, can ya sing?” His voice is muffled by all the skin he’s mouthing.

A short pause. “No.”  
  


“C’mon. Sing for me.”

“Sing what.” He spits.

“Sing that song we danced to. Say _Welcome Home_.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! i hope you enjoyed it! i love reading comments so please don't be shy to leave some <3 if you want to talk more about sakuatsu (or any ships for that matter) i'm @MIWALlSA on twt !! feel free to dm me or interact on the tl or anything really !!


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